In large stores, sometimes called ‘big-box’ stores, customers are presented with a vast collection of items and goods for purchase. These stores offer merchandise as diverse as groceries, clothing, hardware, and garden supplies. While this bewildering array of products facilitates ‘one stop’ shopping, it may frustrate customers who search in various departments without information as to where a product for which they are looking is located.
To assist shoppers in locating products, various systems and methods have been developed. One such system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,882,724 to Vela et al. That system includes relay units mounted in shopping carts that wirelessly communicate with a central computer for information. To shop, a database of all items offered for sale in the store is downloaded to a relay unit in a cart when a customer activates the relay unit. The customer selects the items the customer wants to purchase from the list and these selected items are used to generate a shopping list of selected product records. A map of the store's layout may be generated on the display and the locations of selected products may be indicated on the map. Using this information, the customer directs the cart around the store alerted to the location of selected products.
While the system of Vela et al. does provide a customer with insight regarding the location of products, it has some significant limitations. For one, the customer has to wait while a database of all products is downloaded. Another limitation is that the customer has to construct a shopping list from the displayed database. Most customers come to a store with a list of items that the customer wants to purchase. Using that list to generate a list compatible with the system of Vela et al. is probably more tedious a task than most customers care to perform. This system also requires the use of a relay unit for each shopping cart and requires a customer to use a shopping cart in order to benefit from the system.
Another shopping cart system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,697 to Schkolnick. That system also uses computers mounted in shopping carts for communication with a central unit. The customer may request a map of the store's layout through the display for the computer mounted in the cart. The displayed map may indicate the location of on-sale or special interest items. Again, a customer must use a shopping cart to exploit the advantages of the system and each shopping cart must include a computer. Thus, the cost of implementing such a system may be prohibitive in stores maintaining an extensive number of shopping carts. U.S. Pat. No. 5,250,789 to Johnsen includes a floppy disk drive with the computer mounted in the shopping cart so the user may bring a shopping list. In the system of this patent, shopping lists may also be generated by customers manually identifying products through a keyboard, scanning bar codes from specially generated register tapes, and by downloading a list through telephone modem communications. Again, the system requires a computer unit to be mounted in each cart and customers must use a cart to access to the system. U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,064 to Malec et al. also requires a customer to use a cart having a computer mounted in it to receive a display of a map of the store layout.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,887,271 to Powell uses a kiosk that identifies the location of products that correspond to electronic discount coupons stored on a smart card. The smart card is inserted into the kiosk and the kiosk responds with a display of a map of the store layout with an indication of the locations of the discounted products. This system does not require a customer to use a cart having a computer mounted therein. However, the store is not able to use the kiosk or the card data to improve the revenue potential possible from the customer. Some of the systems noted above, such as Vela et al., do attempt to interest a customer in other unplanned purchases by displaying ads on the cart display when the customer brings the cart into the vicinity of the product that is the subject of the transmitted ad. However, this marketing system requires the relatively expensive cart communication system.
What is needed is a way of using a customer's interest in obtaining product information to increase the potential of purchases by the customer.
What is needed is a way for a store to enhance interest in the products on site without requiring portable cart communication devices.